Roles need to be written for Madhuri, Sridevi, Waheeda: Sharmila Tagore

Sharmila wants good roles to be written for female stars in Indian cinema.
(Hindustan Times)

While heroes Amitabh Bachchan and Rajinikanth have roles especially written for them, it is time heroines get the same, believes veteran actress Sharmila Tagore. “Somebody asked me what are my wishes. I would say that there needs to be some roles written for a person like Madhuri Dixit, Sridevi, Waheeda (Rehman) ji and myself because Amitabh Bachchan and Rajinikanth seems to be getting them. So, I think that needs to change,” she said while addressing an audience at an event.

Tagore said that she would like to write her autobiography but hasn’t set any deadline for that. “There is a time when you want to go back and you want to review your life, you want to look back basically. I think I want to go through that exercise,” she said.

When asked about whether deteriorating image of women in cinema is contributing to rising crimes against them, she said it is easy to blame cinema. “It is so easy to blame the image because the image is paramount. It is always larger than life and you are always creating the image. I don’t think that cinema is bigger than family as an institution. So you have to see what is happening in the society and try change that mindset,” she said.

“There is a mindset that has to be changed - the sense of entitlement of the man. That happens when you are bringing up someone. If you are going to differentiate between a boy and a girl from age zero, then he is bound to grow up with the sense of entitlement,” she added.

She feels that films like Piku and Pink are addressing these issues.

Tagore said that among the current lot of actress working in Bollywood, Alia Bhatt is her favourite.